Dates: Oct 12–Nov 11Run time: approximately three hours, with two intermissionsLocation: Falls Theatre

Whisky, waffles, and a flash of hope.

A darkly funny and sweeping new play, Oslo tells the surprising story of the back-channel talks, unlikely friendships, and quiet heroics that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians. As he did with such wit and intelligence in Blood and Gifts, J.T. Rogers presents a deeply personal story set against a complex political canvas.

The play is inspired by Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, who together coordinated months of top-secret peace negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in the early 1990s. Their strategy was to provide a comfortable room with a table filled with food and drink as inspiration for finding a connection and perhaps, eventually, a compromise.
Through the lens of the Norwegian couple’s perspective, OSLO takes dramatic license to imagine the individuals behind the historic event that resulted in the famous, ill-fated, handshake on the Rose Garden lawn on September 13, 1993.
Rogers’s other plays include The Overwhelming, White People, Madagascar, and he is a co-author of The Great Game: Afghanistan.

“Oslo is a wonderful and moving work that portrays how real diplomacy works. The play shows us what can happen when men and women on opposite sides of what is perceived as an intractable divide strive to create a shared humanity.” – Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations

“A disarmingly funny masterpiece.” – Huffington Post

“So human and so funny. Oslo is gripping, compelling, and compulsively watchable. This is what we call drama, and it’s what we live for. So, go, already—live!” – Variety

“The stuff of crackling theater…Oslo is a vivid, thoughtful, and astonishingly lucid account of a byzantine chapter in international politics.” – New York Times

“Big-boned and gripping.” – New York Magazine

“A riveting political thriller.” – Associated Press

“Exhilarating theatrical magic…Oslo makes high drama out of a complex set of negotiations that in any less wizardly hands would be a shallow biopic.” – John Guare, Tony Award-winning author of Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves

Jordan Goldwarg

Zaki Hamid

Rabbi Daniel Weiner

Oslo, the play, is a fictionalized account of a true moment in history. As a theater, we are not historians or scholars. Our goal is that audiences take away a sense of possibility, a curiosity to learn more, and an understanding that this is a piece of art told through one playwright’s lens.

There are many different perspectives and points of view about the Oslo Accords, and how the play Oslo portrays the events and the people involved.

ACT has heard from community members who have shared their point of view and a request to share articles, journals, and videos to provide audiences with more context to these world events through other lenses.

We share these links here and hope that you will spend time considering the themes of the play and the complex real world events through a variety of perspectives.

DocumentariesThe Oslo Diaries (available until Oct 15)
A comprehensive, dramatic account of the negotiations, The Oslo Diaries draws on previously unseen footage shot from 1992 to 1995, as well as excerpts from and re-creations based on the negotiators’ diaries, which are the only available accounts of what happened behind closed doors.

Budrus
Director: Julia Bacha
Community organizer Ayed Morrar seeks help from Palestinian and Israeli activists to help his village mount nonviolent protests against Israel’s expropriation of their West Bank land.

Omar
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014

Ajami
Directors: Yaron Shani, Scandar Copti
Nominated for an Oscar Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010
Most of the scenes in this film are improvised, and none of the actors had any previous acting experience

Waltz with Bashir
Director: Ari Folman
Nominated for an Oscar Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008
Won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008
The first animated film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar

Beaufort
Director: Joseph Cedar
Near the end of the war in Lebanon, a group of Israeli soldiers defends an isolated mountain outpost next to a 12th-century fortress called Beaufort Castle. Moving through a maze-like underground structure, they are under constant bombardment and stress. The young commander, Liraz (Oshri Cohen), is at odds with demolitions expert, Ziv (Ohad Knoller), and things become even more tense as the troops prepare to withdraw and possibly destroy the very bunker they’ve been defending.

Footnote
Director: Joseph Cedar
Talmud scholar Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba) has worked in obscurity at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. In contrast, Eliezer’s son, Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), also an academic, has published many books and received numerous accolades. Eliezer looks down on his son’s achievements and pursuit of fame, and so the pair have a rocky relationship. Their rivalry comes to a head when Eliezer receives word that, at long last, he is the recipient of the prestigious Israeli Prize.

The Time That Remains
Director: Elia Suleiman
An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day.

Whisk together all dry ingredients or shake them up in a gallon Ziploc bag. Mix all liquids in a measuring cup. Add liquids to flours in 4 batches, whisking thoroughly with each addition. Blend until smooth.

Cook in waffle iron set to “Uniform Texture” somewhere between heat setting 5 and 6.

Oslo contains coarse language and mature content, including descriptions of violence and bigotry.

ACT believes that our patrons can determine what is offensive for themselves, and what is appropriate for their children. We don’t create age restrictions but do our best to offer content advisories for each show. For detailed information about show content and possible triggers, please contact communications@acttheatre.org.